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Ricky Rahne talks to the media after being introduced as Penn State's new passing game coordinator and quarterbacks coach during a NCAA college news conference Friday, Jan. 24, 2014, in State College, Pa. (AP Photo/Centre Daily Times, Nabil K. Mark) MANDATORY CREDIT; MAGS OUT

ASSOCIATED PRESS FILE Penn State’s Ricky Rahne is the third offensive coordinator to work under James Franklin in four seasons.

STATE COLLEGE — As he sat down in his seat, just a moment before he started the meeting with the press he always dreamed he’d get to conduct, a reporter stole Ricky Rahne’s thunder.

So, Penn State’s new offensive coordinator was asked, are you planning to run more sets with the quarterback under center? How about a fullback?

Rahne chuckled. He expected this, after all.

“We are not going to go under center, and we are not going to have a fullback,” he laughed. “No wishbone. Nothing to that effect.

“I think we’ve established a culture.”

There will be some differences, all involved concede. After all, Joe Moorhead stood as the best offensive coordinator in the nation before he moved on to become head coach at Mississippi State earlier this month, and there is always a learning curve for someone like Rahne, who has never run his own offense at the big-time college level. But the longtime assistant that head coach James Franklin said interviewed for this position through his work for the past 11 years insists he doesn’t plan to deviate much from Moorhead’s scheme.

Implementing his own style into that scheme, though, will be the trick.

“He had an innate ability to get people to like him and play for him,” Rahne said. “I want to do the same thing for our players. I want to make sure that, not only are they executing the plays, but they are playing hard, to the whistle, and they’re paying attention to the details.”

Penn State coaches and players gathered Friday at Beaver Stadium for the team’s media day in advance of its Dec. 30 clash in the Fiesta Bowl against No. 11 Washington at University of Phoenix Stadium in Glendale, Arizona. It won’t be the first time Rahne called the plays for the Nittany Lions; it won’t even be the first he has called them in a bowl game, since he had that task in the TaxSlayer Bowl against Georgia in January 2016, in addition to the last few Blue-White scrimmages. But, he concedes, this will feel different, knowing the job is his to keep for the long term.

He said while his play-calling style remains “to be determined,” he remains committed to generating the explosive plays that became the offense’s trademark under Moorhead with quarterback Trace McSorley leading the charge. He also said he wants to continue the consistent quarterback play the Nittany Lions benefitted from since McSorley took over as the starting quarterback at the beginning of the 2016 season.

Franklin said, the quarterbacks were a big reason Rahne emerged as the favorite to step in for Moorhead.

“I thought it was the right thing to do for Trace and Tommy (Stevens) and the rest of our quarterbacks, because they are very comfortable and confident in this system right now,” Franklin said. “Ricky recruited every quarterback in that room. I think it just allows us to continue to keep building. It will be a process, but I’m obviously very confident, or I wouldn’t have done it.”

Rahne becomes the third offensive coordinator to work under Franklin in the four seasons in which he has been in charge of the program, but this move was made for far different reasons than the last one, when Moorhead and his freewheeling offense replaced the embattled John Donovan in December of 2015.

Franklin said he considered conducting a more extensive search for Moorhead’s replacement outside of the program, but that doing so could come with potential pitfalls, namely a likely change in system. Rahne, he said, allows Penn State to continue building on its still relatively new offensive scheme, and do it for what could be the long term.

“This is my dream job,” Rahne said. “Being able to be the offensive coordinator at a place like Penn State really is an unbelievable opportunity for me and my family. But for me, it’s great because I get to coach great players and compete for championships. That’s something that every coach dreams about all the time.”

Contact the writer:

dcollins@timesshamrock.com; 570-348-9100, x5368;

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